Revenge porn king sells site to BullyVille

Fairfax Media -Apr 24, 2012

A ''REVENGE porn'' website that sparked global fury by publishing ''pornographic souvenirs from relationships gone sour'' has been shut down after its owner agreed to sell it to an anti-bullying website.

It is a sudden turnaround for the website's 26-year-old creator Hunter Moore, who revelled in his status as ''the most hated man on the internet''.

The site, which The Age has chosen not to name, attracted more than 300,000 hits a day and earned Moore $US20,000 a month in advertising revenue. Before creating it Moore was a broke hairstylist for porn shoots, but his nasty web venture made him an instant celebrity.

The site featured nude photos of everyday people, including Australians, which were sent in by ex-lovers and published against their will beside their name, location and screenshots of their Facebook profiles.

Moore has attracted widespread scorn because he refused to remove the photos, publicly ridiculing desperate pleas by those whose privacy was invaded by the site.

Moore has said he has received death threats and was even stabbed by someone whom he featured on the site.

Victims tried to get their images removed but were unsuccessful as US law stipulates that website owners cannot be held liable for material published by users. Facebook sent Moore a cease and desist letter accusing him of intimidating and harassing its users.

But now, Moore has agreed to shut his site down and sell its domain name to anti-bullying website BullyVille, a site founded by James McGibney. In a message posted on BullyVille, McGibney said Moore's site ''served no public good''.

Moore, in the same message posted on BullyVille, said he was shutting his site down because he was ''burned out'' from running it.

He was now considering doing some writing for BullyVille ''to help people who have been bullied''.

''I think it's important that everyone realises the damage that online bullying can cause,'' he said.